These Are The Days For Tragic Optimism: Part 2

Finding hope to fend off despair

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Every year since 1945, The Netherlands sends Canada 10,000 tulip bulbs to thank them for their help in World War II. Every year, Canadians witness the blooming of beauty as a reminder of how friends — allies — treat each other; and every year, the Dutch people engage in remembrance. How simple. And who doesn’t love getting flowers? Or the way elongated tulip stems gracefully bend toward the sun, their velvety leaves opening to receive the light?

I lay back on the plump white cushion, drinking in the sherbet sky. Sometimes Los Angeles sunsets melt from yellow to orange to pink to red; colors bleed into one another, softening the hard edges of my city, like angels are slipping through clouds to say goodnight.

We just planted this garden of native California plants, vegetables, and fruit trees. We hope to feed ourselves, neighbors, birds, bees, and lizards (rats, squirrels and possums will feast, too). We’ll know it’s working — restoring — when lots of lizards arrive.

A hummingbird whizzes by me, so close to my head her whirling wings sound like a Blackhawk setting down. She lands in the peach tree — its tiny buds still soft and brown. She sets off again for the apple tree across the yard. Inside of our fence is home to one apple, one…